Paladin feels miles ahead of the other tanks in terms of overall play in this game.

[Tlachtga]

Listing niche situations that benefit PLD doesn't mean its the best tank in the game lol. Or are we judging all tanks by their ability to solo 4 year old primals now?

It's an excellent choice for progression and farming but let's not pretend the other tanks aren't just as good.

[Noitems]

Divine Veil gives 10% of the Paladin's skyhigh health pool as a shield. Shake It Off at baseline gives 15% of the target's much lower HP, not the Warrior's. They're roughly equal if WAR burns no cooldowns, but Veil needs the heal requirement removed by now. If you think Veil isn't significant you've probably never gotten to attacks like Light of Judgement in O8S a group mitigation rotation to barely survive.

What Paladin's utility really excels at is double tankbusters, which were everywhere last patch and there's at least a few in E5S (Add and Ramuh often do tankbusters simultaneously). Otherwise it's okay at everything but not amazing in any aspect besides the one mentioned.

Shake It Off does give 15% Warrior's Max HP. So already it's better then Veil and that number can be pushed significantly if just Thrill is used since that raises your max HP by 20% which then Thrill gets boosted by 17% of your new max hp. Hell Shake and Thrill share the same CD time pretty much for that reason since they're great in tandem.

Paladin does make life easier by generally having the normal heals proc Veil, but I wouldn't disregard or downplay WAR for that reason.

[Seraphor]

Really?

They have four skills that only effect other party members. Cover, Intervention, Divine Veil and Passage of Arms. (PoA has a built in Sheltron for you, but you don't get the actual shield)
While other tanks have skills that can be used on themselves or party members; Heart of Stone/Light, Aurora, TBN, Dark Missionary.
This causes loads of button bloat for PLD, and Cover and Intervention in particular make PLD a purely OT, otherwise these skills are useless.

Not to mention the clunkiness of PoA and DV, one requiring special positioning, the other requiring a heal.

It might have an innate reduction in block rate, but then it's 'tank buster shield' Sheltron, merely brings this up to 100%, which means it's either not technically as strong as a regular block, or it invalidates those innate blocks as reduction, either way it's not additional damage reduction, it's rng fixing. It doesn't compared to Heart of Stone's shield, let alone TBN.

Then it has sustaining ability tied up in Clemency. Sure, it has a pretty potent self heal, but you can't use it because it's on the GCD, and if you do, healers yell at you. Meanwhile the other tanks have innate self healing built into their rotations, or healing on the oGCD like Aurora.

So sure, PLD has some perks, but it also has all of the handicaps to make up for them too.

[RadicalPesto]

Shake It Off does give 15% Warrior's Max HP.

I believe this has been tested and its simply not true, even the tooltip is worded differently than Veil.

[Noitems]

I believe this has been tested and its simply not true, even the tooltip is worded differently than Veil.

The only difference is that Veil states the word "Your" which considering that tip is using Yalms was written long ago and never edited down. They should both should have the same meaning even if WAR's doesn't state it specifically since it doesn't imply a target for the Max HP.

Looking at Thrill's wording it also is done in a similar way to Shake implying it's your health as well.

[Greywolfamakir]

Divine Veil -> If no heal triggers it, NO veil, if you use Clemency on yourself to trigger it, your DPS will suffer.
Clemency -> You are losing DPS in exchange for healing.
Passage of Arms -> It does nothing if ppl are spread. You can't use GCDs or Auto attacks while channeling.
Sheltron -> While you block, you can't parry, so it's worst than flat 20% damage reduction like Raw Intuition. And you can't use it during first ~22s of the encounter.
DPS -> If you want to deal a good amount of Damage, you have to avoid Clemency and Passage of Arms.
Defensive CDs -> PLD has one CD less than other tanks (Camouflage, Thrill of Battle, Dark Mind).
Hallowed Ground -> 7 minutes CD. Still Great imo.
Cover -> Almost 100% useless on current End-Game.

So overall i think that PLD is balanced from a Group Content point of view. Game isn't balanced around solo play, it makes no sense since FFXIV is a MMORPG, you know, massive MULTIPLAYER online RPG.

[winsock]

It's not so much PLD, it's Clemency. A tank has a strong, semi-spammable heal in a game with low hps checks.

I main PLD, I like PLD, but have consistently taken the stance that clemency is too strong for a tanking class. What's wrong with balancing the game such that a dungeon party to wipes when the healer dies?

[ADarklore]

Divine Veil -> If no heal triggers it, NO veil, if you use Clemency on yourself to trigger it, your DPS will suffer.
Clemency -> You are losing DPS in exchange for healing.
Passage of Arms -> It does nothing if ppl are spread. You can't use GCDs or Auto attacks while channeling.
Sheltron -> While you block, you can't parry, so it's worst than flat 20% damage reduction like Raw Intuition. And you can't use it during first ~22s of the encounter.
DPS -> If you want to deal a good amount of Damage, you have to avoid Clemency and Passage of Arms.
Defensive CDs -> PLD has one CD less than other tanks (Camouflage, Thrill of Battle, Dark Mind).
Hallowed Ground -> 7 minutes CD. Still Great imo.
Cover -> Almost 100% useless on current End-Game.

So overall i think that PLD is balanced from a Group Content point of view. Game isn't balanced around solo play, it makes no sense since FFXIV is a MMORPG, you know, massive MULTIPLAYER online RPG.

You do realize that the bolded part is very much outdated thinking in modern day MMOs. Today the 'multiplayer' aspect means a massive amount of players playing the same game at the same time, it no long refers exclusively to 'group content'. This is why most newer MMOs offer tons of solo content, why, because they realized that there are a lot of players who want the OPTION to play with others, but are not forced to. Besides that, back when the original 'MMO' came out, there were few MMOs to choose from, and even fewer options for gaming. Today, with consoles and widespread availability of high speed internet, gaming companies realize that players who prefer to play solo are an untapped resource for large revenue... and with so many MMOs available today, and the 'group content' players spread out amongst them, being able to bring in solo players can help save and maintain an online game.

[Derio]

Tanks are not balanced right now. Especially when most PF groups are asking for GNB/PLD combo. I still feel bad for WAR mains.

PLD is great for progression though. We wont see any real tank changes until 6.0 so right now any tank complaints are really just a waste of concern, especially considering that healer is the job that needs the most work.

[Nedkel]

It's not so much PLD, it's Clemency. A tank has a strong, semi-spammable heal in a game with low hps checks.

I main PLD, I like PLD, but have consistently taken the stance that clemency is too strong for a tanking class. What's wrong with balancing the game such that a dungeon party to wipes when the healer dies?

Using clemecy will put you on the bottom list of performance in exchange of something you dont need because healer are 100% capable of healing out from everything this game throws at you.